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NFL Picks

NFL Gossip: Rams & Michael Sam, Manziel & the Browns

Each week Swinger takes
a look at gossip, rumor and innuendo making the rounds off the field of play, and how it may affect sports betting odds down the road.

The Kiss Seen ‘Round the WorldDid you see
it?

If so, did you see it, and look
away?

Damn homophobes you are!!

Well, that would be the battle cry anyway of
the politically correct crowd who witnessed the Rams’ seventh-round draft pick
Michael Sam’s smooch and subsequent cake lick on his boyfriend as a
groundbreaking, if not polarizing, NFL moment.

It’s a very
dicey world we live in, and any trace of exclusion, derision or, yes, even
repulsion regarding virtually any group is met with shock, horror, and anger by
the PC crowd. Now I understand, and agree
wholeheartedly that bullying or intimidation of any group with the notable
exception of pedophiles, rapists and serial killers should be met with our
abject condemnation. In the case of
Michael Sam, I as a heterosexual male with a Roman Catholic upbringing, had to reconcile
that had he kissed a girlfriend as opposed to his boyfriend, then that would be
considered pretty much standard fare on such a momentous occasion.

I watched
the initial kiss, shuddered a bit, and then admonished myself that he had every
right to do what so many other young men would do, and have done, had their
better half been standing inches away when the call from their new NFL employer
was received. However, the cake smush
into his paramour’s face followed by the tongue licking of said face, was the
big f*** you to all the football fans from Middle America, and the Bible Belt
trying desperately (or so we would hope) to reconcile their conservative views
with the inclusivity of this new millennium.

It was over
the top, and emblematic of the very reason why there is such a schism between
gays wanting, and deserving their rights relative to those who are slow, or
unwilling to accept them. There will be
those who will never tolerate their “lifestyle,” but there are millions who can
be convinced that people with an alternative sexual preference deserve our
support and not our disdain. Michael Sam
made a conscious, and even contrived, decision to showboat rather than
assimilate.

So, the
bottom line is how will Sam’s manufactured, and “fabulous” celebration go over
with the St. Louis Rams brass who took a chance on drafting a controversial
figure? One, I might add, who could have conceivably gone undrafted based on
nothing more than his perceived lack of skills transitioning at the next level. There are no doubt more than a few Ram
players who have considerable reservations about Michael Sam. Reservations can quickly become distractions, and distractions are never a welcome presence in the locker room. Those reservations may now have morphed
into full blown objections after Sam’s post draft performance.

Perhaps this seventh round pick will never
see a regular season game, and it might have nothing, (or maybe everything) to do
with his play on the practice field. We
may never know, but there is a distinct possibility that we may have witnessed
what just might turn out to be the most expensive tongue bath in NFL history.

Johnny FootballOur resident
handicapper and logic guru extraordinaire LT Profits was dead nuts on when he
stated that Johnny Football would not go in
the top five overall, and you could get a pretty penny back from 'over'+5.5
(+130) as well as Blake Bortles (+260) in NFL odds to go before Manziel. Those were two dynamite NFL picks and woe to
those who questioned his superior logic.
LT Profits, we at SBR salute you!